Michael Ball and Alfie Boe are back, and this time it’s personal…
Together At Home, the pair’s brand new sixth studio album arrives on November 8th, marking their 10th year making music together and is the much-loved collaborators’ hymn to the people and places that mean the most to them – and to their army of fans.
The chart-topping, arena-filling, multi-million-selling duo’s first taste arrives in the shape of ‘Proud‘ – the timeless 2000 debut solo single from former M People singer Heather Small, here lent wings by two all-time classic male voices.
“It’s a song that was used for the 2012 London Olympics,” begins Ball. “And this summer I went to the Paris Olympics to watch Grace, my granddaughter, playing in the rugby sevens with Team GB. There’s me and [my partner] Cathy [McGowan] sat in the Stade de France, 66,000 people. On she runs and genuinely, I’ve never felt so proud in my life – or as nervous! And when she scored a try, and there’s her name up on the scoreboard, it was wonderful. The heart-bursting pride Cath and I both felt – incredible!”
“We’re proud of where we’re from. Proud of this country, of being British and welcoming people home. And welcoming people into our home,” Boe adds pointedly, “is something that I think is important.”
Each singer is long used to being away on tour for months on end, so, when it came to selecting songs for the new album, for each of them, certain songs were immediate no-brainers…
“For me the first one was probably ‘Homeward Bound’ by Paul Simon,” says Ball. “It’s obviously written by an American, and from an American perspective, but it was written in the UK, at Widnes train station. It’s about people who are on the road, far from home.” Ball could very much relate. “You get tired, you get jaded, you get homesick. Paul Simon articulately and musically describes that feeling.”
Considerably less of a familiar standard was one of Boe’s first suggestions. Trawling through Spotify, he stumbled across a song titled ‘Welcome Home’ by a little known band actually called The Welcome Home, from the college town of Athens, Georgia. With the feel of a modern, secular hymn, or Coldplay-gone-Deep South, it immediately spoke to Boe.
Home, in a geographical sense, is represented in other songs. Lifelong Liverpool FC fan Boe was keen for the inclusion of ‘Ferry Cross The Mersey’, another anthem by Kop favourite Gerry Marsden. Adoptive Londoner Ball still feels a shiver when he hears Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’. Both have huge affection for Ewan MacColl’s folk standard ‘Dirty Old Town’, written about Salford. And staying in Manchester, Ball and Boe were equally keen to have one of the city’s great musical sons represented. Take a bow Mr. Gary Barlow, and his magisterial Take That composition ‘Rule the World’.
Boe – a son of Fleetwood, Lancashire – is thrilled to see the northwest also represented by The Hollies’ track ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’. And there’s much more, from ‘Up Where We Belong’ to a closing Irish medley that, the pair promise, will “bring the hoolie” – that is, bring the party – when they hit the road next spring. And, as Michael Ball intimated, together in the studio or on stage with Alfie Boe is where he himself feels at home.
Together At Home follows the success of the duo’s previous five duet albums; their debut Together, became the UK’s best-selling album of 2016, beating The Rolling Stones to the Christmas No.1 spot.
This was followed by Together Again, which brought the pair yet another No.1 album in 2017. Ball and Boe went on to release Back Together in 2019 which reached No.2, before a third No.1 album, Together at Christmas in 2020.
After decorated careers in theatre and opera, Michael and Alfie were suddenly chart superstars. As a duo, they have now sold over 1.5 million albums in the UK, received two Classic Brit Awards, sold-out three headline arena tours and presented three ITV Specials.
The duo will now take to the road in a 12-date marathon across the UK in March & April next year for a huge run of arena headline shows that will bring this special album to life, including a night at London’s The O2 on April 13th.
